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 enlarge | Author: David Cay Johnston
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $13.91
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Avg. Customer Rating:  85 reviews
Sales Rank: 5930
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 1591841917
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.97302
EAN: 9781591841913
ASIN: 1591841917
Publication Date: December 27, 2007
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great book that consolidate alot of information July 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a very informative and enlightening look at how the weathly go to great lengths to manipulate a number of various systems to essentially steal money from the American public. Prior to reading the book I had a general ideal that alot of these things were going on but to see it all in one place makes me have a very 'upset stomach'. Our founder fathers would be ashamed at what the rich have done to the legal, tax, political systems within in this great country. It use to be that great innovation, new technlogy, solid investment strategy or great marketing were the keys to building wealth,.. wow have things deteriorated. I am not looking forward to the next 10 years. Couple of areas that the author omits are the subsidies that are provided to the oil companies, as well as the financial bailout of the airlines. Overall a great book and written with a good flow. He could have spent a little more time on some potential remedies.
 A Book that Will Engage and Enrage You July 8, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Seven years into the governmental nightmare known as the Bush II Admininstration, and scant months before the near collapse of the American economy under the weight of a devalued dollar, massive trade imbalances, failed hedge funds, near-failed banks and investment firms, bursting real estate bubble, $4.00+ per gallon gasoline, and the prospect of dual bankruptcies by Ford and General Motors, David Cay Johnston's FREE LUNCH emerged in bookstores. Mr. Johnston's book was as much a warning against these trends as it was a jeremiad, a lengthy register of complaints about a governmental system that, at virtually every level, had been overtaken by lawyers and lobbyists in the name of their corporate clients. In Mr. Johnston's view, the American enterprise system had increasingly become rigged for the aggrandizement of the wealthy few at the expense of the vast many. History will likely show that, while this perversion of government "for the people" was not causative with respect to the Bush II late-term recession, they will be seen as part and parcel of the same neoconservative, trickle-down agenda.
The strength of FREE LUNCH emerges in its lengthy anecdotes. Rather than lecture and philosophize, Mr. Johnston elects to illustrate with concrete examples that leave one outraged, cursing under one's breath at both the sheer audacity and the public's lack of awareness and powerlessness. His case histories begin with the "reward without risk" behavior of CSX, the railroad company whose negligence in maintaining tracks and switches allowed them to increase earnings while offloading the liability for accidents and deaths onto the American taxpayer via Amtrak. Next comes the seizure of the Mullaly and Macombs Dam Parks by New York City on behalf of George Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees, followed by a fusillade targeted at the use of taxpayer funds and tax rebates for privately-owned professional sports teams around the U.S. (with special attention given to the Texas Rangers during George W. Bush's questionable involvement with that franchise).
Next comes corporate subsidies given to companies like Wal-Mart and Cabela sport shops in the form of land seizures (eminent domain) and tax subsidies which virtually never earn back in other taxes what is lost in the subsidy. One egregious example: Warren Buffet's GEICO insurance company received $100 million in government subsidies to build a $40 million call center in Buffalo, NY. Another is that of Tyco, General Electric, Honeywell, and others in the home alarm system business who collect monthly fees in return for placing calls with local police departments without bearing one cent's worth of the enormous cost of false alarms. Perhaps the most outrageous of Mr. Johnston's stories concerns the five companies who control 92% of the title insurance business in the United States. Not only is the industry rampant with kickbacks to developers, lawyers, and real estate brokers, the insurance itself is wildly overpriced and virtually unnecessary. No such corporate businesses exist in Australia or Europe, nor in Iowa where Johnston claims the typical title insurance premium is just $500.
FREE LUNCH progresses through, among others, the areas of health care and health insurance, pharmaceuticals, student loans, and electrical utilities (including, of course, Enron). In each case, the author illustrates how big business interests are sheltered from risk or given preference over those of the average citizen due primarily to the latter's lack of lobbyists or other voices in government that speaks on their behalf. Congress, the people's purported voice in Washington, has of course long since been purchased by corporate interests, and similar abandonment has routinely taken place at the state and local levels.
One would hope after all the horror stories that Mr. Johnston would have some thoughts on how to change things. Sadly, his suggestions occupy a meager two pages and consist of two hopelessly romantic idealizations: recognizing that "we the people" are not powerless, and "restor[ing] the ethos that cheating is wrong." In addition, and perhaps a bit more concretely, he proposes that Congressional representatives be given unlimited personal budgets in return for full and open reporting on all their expenditures coupled with a total ban (and zero tolerance) on all gifts and contributions of services. As he correctly points out, "A free lunch always costs more than an honest one." Unfortunately, it continues to be "we the people" who end up paying for all those free lunches.
excellent book, highly recommended June 27, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Well written, informative and each chapter is a separate story about the transfer of public wealth in to the hands of the very rich. A real eye opener that every citizen should read, it will change the way you look at government.
How "Special Interests" Pick Your Pocket to Create Billion-Dollar Fortunes May 14, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I wanted to lose my lunch on the shoes of any politician or executive named in this book after reading what David Cay Johnston had to say. Unless you want to be cheated forever (and for more money), read this book and let your "elected" and "appointed" representatives know that you won't stand for it any more.
George Washington, as usual, got it right: If we allow political parties to exist rather than looking out for everyone's interests in a non-partisan way, the parties will sell out the public interest for pennies to get money to run election campaigns and conduct party politics.
It's popular now to say we need a change in Washington, a change that involves changing political parties in charge of governing. Wrong! Really, how foolish can we get? Can't anyone remember what Washington said?
In the meantime, you can read the excellent exposes in David Cay Johnston's book to help you realize that your Federal, state, and local legislators in the United States are selling out your and your children's interests to curry favor with those who will give them large campaign contributions. Yes, there's some corruption but mostly it seems to be related to wanting power and more power . . . and not understanding what the costs will be.
Once again, we see tales of how the fig leaf of "free markets" is invoked to put in changes that cause "rigged markets" with vastly increased profits. My favorite example in the book is how President Bush and his pal, "Kenny Boy" Lay, from Enron rigged the electricity markets so that instead of consumers paying the lowest price anyone was willing to sell electricity for (a Dutch auction) the highest price bid is paid to all (which means they take turns putting in phony high-priced bids to rig prices way above where they would be in either a free or a regulated market).
Here are some of the more interesting cases in the book:
1. How famous Scottish golf courses were re-created through indirect and direct taxpayer subsidies in a remote part of Oregon that is easily accessible only by corporate jet.
2. How public parks were gobbled up to build the new Yankee Stadium in New York City and parks in poor areas everywhere were left untended to favor richer areas.
3. Ways that college and graduate school students are cheated on their interest rates for student loans.
4. How burglar alarm monitoring companies are subsidized to earn big profits by free police services covering false alarms while response rates to real crimes decline.
5. How John Snow stopped repairing the track at CSX causing deaths with no risk that any costs would be incurred by CSX. You, the taxpayer, paid instead for his willful neglect.
6. How many "high profile" politicians including Rudy Giuliani have ignored anti-corruption laws and take huge gifts and trips from lobbyists.
7. How two leading sporting goods chains persuade governments to subsidize their stores with tax breaks worth a multiple of the total construction cost of each store.
8. How "good guy" Warren Buffett is out for all the tax breaks he can get, regardless of the public cost and harm to the local community in Buffalo.
9. How "required" title insurance creates one of America's most profitable industries by bribing banks and lawyers with money you pay when you buy a home.
10. How the California courts let Barron Hilton seize the assets of a charity that his father had established to help the poor. So if you like Paris Hilton's clothes, realize that she paid for them in part with money that was destined for those who need clothes . . . any kind of clothes.
11. We've all read about the massive amounts of money made in Russia and elsewhere by politicians selling off government operations at bargain prices to their pals. Well the same thing has been going on here with selling off municipal utilities and non-profit foundations. It's like a banana republic.
12. You'll also read about how creating "deregulated" utilities allows companies to shuffle around costs between their subsidiaries so that rate payers pay for the same construction costs twice.
13. You will be reminded of President Bush's misstatements and keeping the lid on more accurate reports about what his drug benefit plan for seniors would cost. But what's a few hundred billion for a guy who spent a trillion dollars (so far) in Iraq?
Most people would probably like this book better if it had a more partisan tone (how the Republicans stole from the poor and middle class to make the rich a lot richer). Instead, the book points at individuals (a more accurate way to assess the sources of corruption) including two-term president "the peoples' choice" George W. Bush and invokes spiritual rules for suggesting other ways of making choices.
 Disapppointing follow up to "Perfectly Legal" May 8, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
David Cay Johnston's book "Perfectly Legal" was a masterpiece of muckraking which opened my eyes to the way the game is rigged in this country in favor of the rich. The book drew on his experience as a tax writer for the New York Times and presented, in tremendous detail and with great amounts of evidence, exact and precise ways in which the tax code has been rigged. It's layered and powerful - "Perfectly Legal" is an amazing book and I highly recommend it.
"Free Lunch" expands on this theme (rich people rigging this country's government to help them) feels like more of a polemic. The writing is shakier and the fact-based evidence is disguised behind a wall of obvious disgust and contempt for the people taking from the many to give to the wealthy and obscenely wealthy. I don't blame him, in fact I am disgusted by it as well, but it means that this book will not have the same impact as "Perfectly Legal". It is more "preaching to the choir" if you will.
The book also seems to bounce around too much. Some topics are covered in depth quite a bit while some not as much. Important points, like the fact that roughly 100% of the increase of value of sports teams has come from taxpayer subsidized stadiums, or that increased funding of libraries, parks, etc. could provide a useful buttress against gang crime, are not given adequate depth in my opinion.
Don't get me wrong - this is a valuable book and I do hope Johnston keeps up this important work. There is lots of good stuff in here, and it's critical more people know what politicians really mean when they talk about "free markets" and the like. But "Free Lunch" is not as convincing as "Perfectly Legal" and therein lies its greatest flaw.
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